Silver Dollar Santa
by Tsukiori
Summary: Out of all of Jet's wayward children, he would have never expected that the one to come back would have been her. Jet and Faye must face life after Spike.


It was rough there for a while, though he would never admit it. He had stated enough times, often at the top of his lungs, that everyone was expendable, that he couldn't wait for them all to go their separate ways and leave him and the Bebop the hell alone. Everyone had known he was lying. It had broken his heart to watch his family dwindle down to three people, than two, and than one. It had hurt like hell. He could picture Ed with her (his?) dad doing their insane experiments, he could picture that woman sprawled on some beach trying to scam off her tremendous debt, but that one, the one that had mattered the most, would never come home again.

Jet had thought he had dealt with betrayal before, with loneliness, but this emptiness in was too much. He no longer flipped through the bounty ads, but contented himself with seeing how long he could make his money stretch and how to make the beer last. But of all his wayward children, it was the one he would have least expected that wandered back.

"This place is a pig sty." Faye paused a moment, hands on her hips. "Well it was always a pig sty, but it's gotten worse. And I didn't think it could get worse."

"Woman, I sure didn't miss your shrill voice. Especially when I have a hangover."

She just smirked and sashayed over to her old room.

"Hey! What do you think you're doin'! You've gone what a month and you think you can just come back? I liked being alone. I haven't been alone in years and now…"

Faye lifted a finger to her lips and winked, "I ran out of money and thought I would stay here, scrape some cash together, at least until the debtors catch my trail again."

"But..!"

"Yes, I know. I missed you too. It's great to be together again, riding the range, back in the saddle, yadda yadda." She turned her back to him and opened the door to her room.

"Oh, and Jet?"

"Hm?"

"Two months. It's been two months since he… It's been two months." She shut the door behind her.

"So it has." Jet clenched his fists. "Damnable woman." He went to leaf through the bounty ads.

It was an uneasy existence at first. Both of them weren't used to acting directly together. They had always had Ed or…_him_ to deflect their different attitudes and perspectives. But after many months of almost catches and vast amounts of property damage, they devised a decent working relationship. They still weren't in the league they were…_before_ but they were building quite a reputation and eking out a comfortable living. Bad guys always fell for a pretty face and a low cut dress, and Jet was always there with the massive firepower and brute strength to haul them in.

Weeks turned to months turned into a year. When they had reached the year and a half mark of their partnership, he admitted to himself that he was puzzled as to why Faye was still around. She had amassed enough Oolongs to trot off to the gambling houses and start the sad cycle of her life over again, but she still stayed. He tried to ask her about it a few times, but she had waved it off and said some off hand comment about the Bebop needing a "woman's touch". Never in a million years would he point out that the Bebop had been neater without her cosmetics scattered all over the place, along with her embarrassing lingerie and used food containers. He liked his eardrums intact.

"I talked to Ed today."

"How is she?"

"Pretty good. I could never really understand her, especially when she's excited. There was a lot of arm waving and squealing and Ein was barking." She waved her chopsticks widely about to demonstrate.

"Last time she talked to me, all I could catch was Silver Dollar Santa and a bunch of weird sounds."

"Hmm. Silver Dollar Santa? Maybe she's found a sugar daddy?" Faye scooped some ramen into her mouth, spilling some down into her cleavage in the process.

Jet coughed and hurriedly looked away. "Why do you wear that stuff?"

"What stuff?" Faye asked idly fishing out the noodles with her chopsticks.

"Those kinds of clothes. Around me. I'm not a bounty. Seems kinda wasteful."

She raised an eyebrow. "I think this is the first time you've noticed. Well, I'd think the answer would be obvious."

He started coughing.

"Pervert. No, when I was a girl I was so shy about my body. I always wished I could wear the kinds of clothes my friends did. When I woke up and couldn't remember my past life, I think that wish transferred over." She looked down at herself. "I might have taken it a little too extreme, but hell, it's habit now. And I have the body for it and no complaints so far! Don'tcha think?" She leaned over a little, causing Jet, who had turned to face her again, to whirl around and mutter something about checking the engines. Faye watched his retreating back and smirked.

Well into year two, and Faye was still around. They definitely had a rep among the bounty hunters and it was surprisingly good. Jet was becoming a little more relaxed, but he still suspected that at any moment she'd run off on a hare-brained scheme like she had done in the past and leave him alone again. Well, he could admit that before she had come back he hadn't really been alone. There had been plenty of ghosts to keep him company. One in particular.

In fact, he was, at the moment, mentally preparing himself for the lady's departure. There had been strangeness in the air recently. Like a big change was coming. And there had been little moments; accidental brushes, bumpings into, that had left Faye raising her eyebrow and Jet running off to repair some unbroken thing with the litany "she's old enough to be my daughter, well, maybe my younger sister", running through his head.

After the sixtieth time she had caught him staring at her, he was pretty sure that the news that she was heading out would be coming soon. He was totally unprepared when she stumbled into his bed at four o'clock in the morning; drunk, declaring she was too tired to sleep alone. He was pretty sure she had meant to say "cold" or "lonely".

Third year. He had asked her a question. She had told him to wait for her answer outside. He stared up at the stars, unable to decide if he was nervous, resigned, or just unsure. She came up behind him, arms crossed and walked in front of him, not looking in his direction once. "Sure." She said in her most devil-may-care tone of voice, "why not?"

Jet grinned so hard his face hurt. "But let me guess, you'll run off as soon as some rich cowboy cocks his finger at you."

She turned, eyebrow arched. "Hmmm. No, but keep saying things like that and I might be tempted to cheat on you a time or two."

"Get your own Silver Dollar Santa?"

That earned him a little laugh. She leaned into him as he put his arms around her. "Maybe. But after I milk them dry I promise to come back." She frowned. "I still miss him. That mismatched eyed clown. With his funky hair."

"I miss him too. Not so badly now though."

The held each other and looked up into the night sky, trying to avoid a spot of blankness that had once held the brightest star they had known.


End file.
